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In the past, we’ve blogged about the ties between franchising and retired military veterans.

This is one sector of the population who arrive for busines trained with the skills for franchise success. Many franchises offer veterans discounts in order to entice them to purchase franchises. So to enhance these bonds, the IFA recently announced a new partnership with US Army Reserve.

According to the IFA, the recently-issued Certificate of Partnership will ‘funnel franchise prospects from the Army Reserve toward IFA’s Veteran’s Transition Franchise Initiative, VetFran, program, which connects veterans with discounts and incentives offered to veterans by franchise companies to help them get into franchising’.

It’s a great initiative that’s inspired praise from a number of people in Congress, including Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

“I applaud this initiative to help veterans transition to civilian life through business ownership,” said Rep. Skelton. “Our military personnel deserve all the support we can provide to help them achieve their career goals after they have completed their service,” he said.

It’s great to have the links between franchising and the military formalized and we expect this plan will create more business opportunities for America’s bravest.

Here’s one rule to live by for international franchisors: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. It’s a rule that Taco Bell have learned firsthand and thrived by.

In the early 1990s, Taco Bell tried to introduce the taco to Asia. A staple meal in Mexico, the taco doesn’t easily translate to the Asian menu and while Taco Bell boomed in America, it had to close down its first franchise forays in China and South Korea. But buoyed by the rapid growth of the economies in south-east Asia, Taco Bell has again opened units in South Korea. So far, so good.

In July, Taco Bell opened the first of three restaurants in Seoul. They realized they would struggle to attract customers based on their menu alone so they tried to bring customers in by building exciting stores. As the Washington Post reports: “The new store’s menu appears on an LED board. Wall hangings display a succession of culinary mood words: sizzle, steam, smash.”

The three-story Taco Bell has forty-minute queues on the day of its opening. Taco Bell believe they are on to something here, and Shin Sang Yong, chief executive officer of M2G Ltd, which brought Taco Bell to South Korea, seriously believe that local eaters are finally ready for the taco.

They are smart to realize that social media outlets like blogs will play a huge role in depending the fate of Taco Bell in Korea. In the short term, the paper reports that people seem to be enjoying the experience:

“Several young women sat on the second floor of Seoul’s Taco Bell one recent evening, devoted equally to consuming and photographing their food. Jung Ji Yoon, a 20-year-old college student, said that she had eaten at Taco Bell several times this summer, finding the taste to be “good - especially compared to the price.”

As Taco Bell have proved, it’s not impossible to return to a foreign market where you have initially failed. But you need to be flexible enough to change your business approach entirely.

While the jury’s still out on the longer-term strength of the US economic recovery, businesses are beginning to look to the future instead of being dragged down by the recession of 2008.

But should the economy falter again, what lessons can businesses and franchises take from the recent challenges? Whereas many businesses struggled to keep their heads above water during the downturn, McDonald’s turned the recession into an opportunity to consolidate its place as the world’s biggest franchise.

Mint.com has broken down McDonald’s recession success story into five steps in a recent article. It’s a sort of blueprint for how to build a business at a time of economic stagnation. Here they are in easy to read bulletpoints:

• Recession-Friendly Pricing
• Reduced Advertising Costs
• Improved Operations
• New Products For Different Markets
• Rapid Price Adjustments

We’ve written a lot about McDonald’s in the past few months, but this really is the definitive article on how they did it. Now, not every franchise has the market position to cut prices and improve operations during an economic nightmare, but you have to admire the way McDonald’s turned a potentially-bleak situation into a platform for expanded growth.

It took courage and vision, that’s for sure.

The advantages of the home care industry are manifold. With the graying of America, more and more people are choosing to age in the comfort of their own homes, and the franchise industry has quickly filled a void in the caring business.

The industry is growing fast and planting roots across the country, even up to northern Nevada. The Reno Gazette-Journal has a pretty topical story on the industry, focusing on Barbie Denmark, a Comfort Keepers employer. She finds that the business has been perfect for her.

“At the end of the day, I feel very good about myself,” she told the paper.

The article examines the state of the industry in Nevada and predicts a kind of growth that is being replicated all across the country in the industry.

“It is much cheaper to age at home rather than a care facility,” said Peter Morris, owner of a BrightStar home-care franchise that opened in Reno this year. “As a startup company, I see only growth ahead.”

This movement is of course bolstered by demographics. But it’s fascinating to get a sense of the national reach of the industry. It’s not just cities and suburbs around New York or California where this movement is thriving. Across the country, from coast to coast, Americans are choosing home care and they’re looking to franchises to assist them in their golden years.

For those out there with the mistaken impression that franchising only means burgers and fries, we’ve got an interesting article for you to read.

The Dayton Daily News has penned an article about the inherent diversity of franchising. To illustrate their point, they’ve spoken with two former Handle With Care franchisees, who in their day shipped “World War II-era machine guns, motorcycles, an (empty) turn-of-the-century coffin and CARE packages.”

There’s barely anything that franchises won’t do. In fact, Alisa Harrisson of the IFA informed the paper that there are over 100 different kinds of businesses that are currently franchised.

With diversity like that, it’s no surprise that franchising continues to help drive the American economy.

BrightStar Healthcare Kelly Luers franchisee added this bit of advice for people ready to open their own franchise.

“Just because you’re part of a franchise doesn’t mean you don’t eat, live or breathe (the business).”